Among the Intellectualoids
Gulag Guantanamo
By Christopher Orlet
Published 6/2/2005 12:07:06 AM

Every so often Amnesty International has to toss a bone to its wealthy liberal contributors. Otherwise the Ted Turners and George Soroses may begin to wonder whether they are getting the best bang for their buck. No doubt its annual assault on the U.S. is the meatiest bone Amnesty International can serve up.

After all, what profit is there in constantly harping about third world dictators? Not only is it ineffective, but more important it's not going to make headlines. And headlines equal more donations. Besides we all know that conditions in Sudan, Haiti, Zimbabwe, etc., etc., are hellish. And what wealthy liberal wants to pick on a developing country? Haven't they endured enough suffering at the hands of the brutal European colonials? This explains why Amnesty International spends an inordinate amount of time trying to dig up dirt on countries like the U.S. and Britain (and not enough time on France, in my opinion).

Speaking of headlines, last week Amnesty International's Secretary General Irene Zubaida Khan called Guantanamo Bay "the Gulag of our time." The obvious reference was to the Soviet Union's notorious Gulag Archipelago, made infamous by Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn's memoir/history, called by one reviewer, "the modern equivalent of Luther's 95 Theses." Evidently, the Muslim head of Amnesty International has never found time to read Mr. Solzhenitsyn's book or even bothered to look up the word gulag on the online encyclopedia. If she had Ms. Zubaida Khan would have been amazed to learn that the 30 million inmates of the secret Soviet camps were by and large political prisoners, writers, and dissidents like Solzhenitsyn (arrested for writing a private letter criticizing Stalin), or Soviet soldiers welcomed home from years in German prison camps with a one-way ticket to Siberia. (Besides punishing dissidents, Lenin and Stalin had important economic reasons for the camps. It was due largely to this slave labor that the Soviet economy remained precariously afloat for 70 years.)

Gulag prisoners were systemically starved, beaten, and forced to labor in sub-zero weather. The lucky ones were shot immediately. In contrast, at Guantanamo Bay, 1,300 Korans in 13 different languages were handed out to prisoners. Prisoners are served "proper Muslim-approved food." The International Red Cross has been monitoring the camp from Day One. Gen. Richard Myers noted that the organization has consistently given the U.S. high marks for the way it takes care of terrorists. What is Amnesty's biggest beef about Gitmo? That some guards "mishandled" a book.

Nevertheless Amnesty International's "gulag" reference came as a bit of a surprise. The left has been notoriously silent about the gulags. It is normally a chapter in the history of socialism they prefer to leave out. On the other hand, the fact that Amnesty International used the term shows how little respect the left has for the tens of millions that suffered the hell of the gulag. You would never hear Amnesty International call Guantanamo Bay the "Auschwitz of our Time." Auschwitz is sacred to the memory of the Jews and Poles who died there. The gulag? That's not sacred. Just a failed experiment.

A final "minor" point. The gulag prisoners were innocent. The roughly 650 prisoners that have gone through Guantanamo Bay, on the other hand, are terrorists and terrorist allies.

By making such asinine comparisons, Amnesty International risks losing whatever credibility it has left. This is unfortunate because the organization normally does important work. However, Amnesty is caught in a Catch-22 situation. It can risk losing its credibility by throwing a bone to its wealthy liberal donors, or risk losing its funding. Amnesty has obviously chosen to risk its credibility.

If nothing else good came out of the recent "gulag" stories, I was encouraged to go back and reread some of The Gulag Archipelago. How nice to be reminded that Solzhenitsyn's masterpiece contains some of the most darkly humorous and lyrically beautiful writing of the 20th century:

We have been happily borne -- or perhaps have unhappily dragged our weary way -- down the long and crooked streets of our lives, past all kinds of walls and fences made of rotting wood, rammed earth, brick, concrete, iron railings. We have never given a thought to what lies behind them. We have never tried to penetrate them with our vision and our understanding. But here is where the Gulag country begins, right next to us, two yards away from us. In addition, we have failed to notice an enormous number of closely fitted, well-disguised doors and gates in these fences. All those gates were prepared for us, every last one! And all of a sudden the fateful gate swings open, and four white male hands, unaccustomed to physical labor but nonetheless strong and tenacious, grab us by the leg, arm, collar, cap, ear, and drag us in like a sack, and the gate behind us, the gate to our past life, is slammed shut once and for all.

I intend to send Irene Zubaida Khan my copy. It's a little worn, so perhaps it's time I found another.

I read with interest your post about Amnesty International, although I agree that there are indeed differences in Solzhenitsyn's Gulag and what is happening at Gautanemo Bay, I do take issue with your comment about the 650 "terrorists and terrorist allies". The fact is that these people have been locked up without charge or trial, denied access to legal representation all for what? I do not see any evidence of a decrease in terrorist attacks in Iraq or Afghanistan.
I for one appluad Amnesty International and the work they are doing to publicise human rights violations around the world, sure they are not everyone's cup of tea and I'm sure that there are Governments around the world who cringe everytime they hear the word Amnesty International. Maybe if more people took an interest in what was happening in this world instead of driving their gas guzzling SUV's to the mall then Amnesty would have a much easier job and we could do something to ease the suffereing of those less fortunate than the majority of the population.
Anyway I liked your piece and I look forward to reading more.

I read with interest your post about Amnesty International, although I agree that there are indeed differences in Solzhenitsyn's Gulag and what is happening at Gautanemo Bay, I do take issue with your comment about the 650 "terrorists and terrorist allies". The fact is that these people have been locked up without charge or trial, denied access to legal representation all for what? I do not see any evidence of a decrease in terrorist attacks in Iraq or Afghanistan.
I for one appluad Amnesty International and the work they are doing to publicise human rights violations around the world, sure they are not everyone's cup of tea and I'm sure that there are Governments around the world who cringe everytime they hear the word Amnesty International. Maybe if more people took an interest in what was happening in this world instead of driving their gas guzzling SUV's to the mall then Amnesty would have a much easier job and we could do something to ease the suffereing of those less fortunate than the majority of the population.
Anyway I liked your piece and I look forward to reading more.

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If you are shooting at US Forces, you are an enemy. As such, you aren't afforded the same luxories as regular 'criminals'...Health...welfare...religous and dietary needs? Sure.

I read with interest your post about Amnesty International, although I agree that there are indeed differences in Solzhenitsyn's Gulag and what is happening at Gautanemo Bay, I do take issue with your comment about the 650 "terrorists and terrorist allies". The fact is that these people have been locked up without charge or trial, denied access to legal representation all for what? I do not see any evidence of a decrease in terrorist attacks in Iraq or Afghanistan.

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Nor did the North Vietnamese see a decrease in our attacks when they took POWs. You seem to lack a fundamental understanding of what a POW is, and why they are taken during wartime.

I for one appluad Amnesty International and the work they are doing to publicise human rights violations around the world, sure they are not everyone's cup of tea and I'm sure that there are Governments around the world who cringe everytime they hear the word Amnesty International.

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When Amnesty International starts documenting humans rights abuses in China, Cuba, Zimbabwe, Darfur/Sudan, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Liberia, just name the ones off the top of my head, then I would start paying more attention to them. As it is, AI seems to only whine and cry about human rights abuses when it fits with their pre-conceived political agenda.

When Amnesty International starts documenting humans rights abuses in China, Cuba, Zimbabwe, Darfur/Sudan, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Liberia, just name the ones off the top of my head, then I would start paying more attention to them. As it is, AI seems to only whine and cry about human rights abuses when it fits with their pre-conceived political agenda.

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All this is, is Sorros spending his money to try and make the US look bad as per usual.

TALES OF HORROR FROM THE AMERICAN GULAG
Now that Amnesty International has declared Gitmo the "gulag of our time," the terrible stories are leaking out:

Americans are very kind people, one English-challenged detainee said in the March 4 paper. If people say there is mistreatment in Cuba with the detainees, those type speaking are wrong, they treat us like a Muslim not a detainee.
Im in good health and have good facilities of eating, drinking, living, and playing, remarked another. The food is good, the bedrooms are clean and the health care is very good.

In a February 16 Gitmo dispatch, an American Forces Press Service report described the treatment of Camp Deltas roughly 520 detainees from about 40 nations. Troublemakers wear prison-style orange jumpsuits and mainly are confined to rudimentary accommodations. But those who follow camp rules wear white outfits and exercise seven to nine hours daily, often playing soccer and volleyball. In quieter moments, chess, checkers and playing cards are the most requested items, Rhem wrote. As for reading, A security official explained Agatha Christie books in Arabic are very popular and that camp officials are working to get copies of Harry Potter books in Arabic.

This only confirms earlier stories of torture and humiliation from 2004:

Mohammed Ismail Agha, 15, who until last week was held at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, said that he was treated very well and particularly enjoyed learning to speak English. His words will disappoint critics of the US policy of detaining "illegal combatants" in south-east Cuba indefinitely and without trial.
In a first interview with any of the three juveniles held by the US at Guantanamo Bay base, Mohammed said: "They gave me a good time in Cuba. They were very nice to me, giving me English lessons."

Mohammed, an unemployed Afghan farmer, found the surroundings in Cuba at first baffling. After he settled in, however, he was left to enjoy stimulating school work, good food and prayer.

"At first I was unhappy . . . For two or three days [after I arrived in Cuba] I was confused but later the Americans were so nice to me. They gave me good food with fruit and water for ablutions and prayer," he said yesterday in Naw Zad, a remote market town in southern Afghanistan close to his home village and 300 miles south-west of Kabul, the capital.

He said that the American soldiers taught him and his fellow child captives - aged 15 and 13 - to write and speak a little English. They supplied them with books in their native Pashto language. When the three boys left last week for Afghanistan, the soldiers looking after them gave them a send-off dinner and urged them to continue their studies.

Shocking.

Now, I'm not stating that Guantanamo - based on either the case review policy and criteria for continued detention, or all individual cases of confinement and interrogation - is a paradise or fair, but when Amnesty International compares the facility to the network of Soviet slave labor camps where millions were worked to death ... well, let's just put things lightly and say that it mortally undermines itself as an effective and credible human rights organization.

The way I interpreted the statement, that Gitmo is the "gulag of our times" doesn't say that it actually has the same exact conditions as a Russian gulag, which was undboutedly worse, but that it is similar because it holds detainees, who may have been tortured/beaten to death, who have not been convicted of crimes, and because its overall function is to be a means for controlling political opposition to the US, which is the same purpose the Russian gulags served. Most of the people there are foreign civilians, not legally POWs. The whole reason they are kept off US soil is to try and avoid some legal restrictions, like being held indefinately without a trial.

I wouldn't quite argue that AI has had an un-American agenda after their report about the breaches of human rights in Iraq leading up to the war.

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